72 Fastback EV

Bye Bye Boulder

2011-06-14T08:16:00.003-06:00

Some pictures from our move to Cincinnati.

project retrospective

2011-05-22T07:37:00.026-06:00

I thought I would post a photo-history of the whole car project. We're about to move to Cincinnati and the car is now ready to make the trip. It has been a little over 2 years work so far on this epic project which turned from a simple electric car conversion into a full restoration and conversion. Only a small amount of work is left to get it driving.

The glass is in

2011-05-22T07:12:00.003-06:00

With a mix of brute force and finesse, Ali and I got the glass put into the car.

Glass Prep

2011-05-16T07:35:00.001-06:00

I was really dreading this process but it turned out to be not so bad. The headliner is now done and all the glass is prepped and out at the shop with the car. Hopefully I'll get a free night this week and put all the glass in.

Headliner

2011-05-14T10:21:00.003-06:00

Getting ready to move the car to Cincinnati. Need to get the glass in for transport, but first the headliner.

A few more details

2011-01-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

tail lights, moldings

2011-01-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

Dashboard Stuff

2011-01-10T18:04:00.002-07:00

Dash Pad, Speedometer, Wiper Motor, Turn Signal, Wiper Switch, and Mirrors just for some bling. Also got the ash tray, heater outlets and dash switches in. I think I'm about ready to start putting all this wiring together at the dash.

120V and 12V together

2010-12-22T08:54:00.005-07:00

Now I've got the traction pack charging in the car and the DC/DC Converter connected and the Acc. Battery tied in. Still a bit surprised that I haven't popped a fuse or smelled something funny yet. A little contactor buzzing had me searching for a problem but all seems good so far. Paktrakr says I've got one Battery a bit high and one a bit low on voltage. I think I'll wait a bit before I isolate the low battery and juice it up by itself. Of course it is in the rear pack which is a bit trickier to disconnect.
I installed one headlight assembly and tied it into the 12V Bus to see what a little load would do to the system, no trouble. Starting to look like something that might drive down the road someday!
I need to make 3 more battery jumpers, ran out of lugs so I'm using some 10ga. jumpers for testing. I also made the final shock adjustment. All the way up in the rear and all the way down in the front. Still a bit low in the rear but overall riding pretty high for carrying almost 800 pounds of batteries.

Big Day, Big Day

2010-12-19T16:52:00.003-07:00

Batteries are in! The "big" part was getting the rear pack in and bolted down. It is an incredible tight squeeze, tighter than I had anticipated. I almost couldn't squeeze the bracket which holds them down into place. All I need to do is wire up the Positive sides which are "easily" accessible.
I dropped the front pack in place which was a breeze by comparison. I noticed the rear is riding a bit low now but I guess that is a classic old VW stance. I have one notch of adjustment on the shocks left so I can get the rear up a bit more.
Now and am very close to having the traction pack wired together and charging in the car.

Back at it

2010-12-18T17:18:00.003-07:00

After 4 or more months I finally got back to work on the car today. I want to get the traction pack installed so I can get it charged. I'm not sure what damage I've done to the batteries by having them sit around for two years with minimal maintenance charging. Before I get the batteries in I have to get the rear seat belt retractors in which meant removing the rear fenders hopefully for the last time. I got the rear fender beading started and also painted the area behind the louvers in the rear fenders which had become hazed with primer and red paint from the paint shop.

New Chrome Wheels

2010-08-25T07:28:00.001-06:00

These pictures are a few weeks old, just wanted to put up something fresh.

Ahhh, progress

2010-07-28T19:48:00.000-06:00

Check out this before and after.

Wire it up

2010-07-27T19:58:00.002-06:00

Since I have the week off from my real job I making some good progress this week. I spent the day under the bonnet installing the onboard GFI, 120VAC inlet, 120VAC branches, and the main contactor junction box.

Back to it

2010-07-23T20:30:00.005-06:00

After an extended break I got back to work today. I pulled the motor once again because I was worried that I hadn't ever torqued the clutch to spec. Two hours later I confirmed that I had in fact torqued the clutch exactly as it should have been. Well at least I won't have that in the back of my mind any more and I had a chance to touch up the motor mount which was hazed in red paint.
I installed the main 120VDC front to back conduit (1 1/2 sealtite) which connects the split pack. I had previously built and installed it but removed it for paint. The 2/0 welding wire was already inside it and cut to length so that was a snap and rewarding after my semi-pointless motor in and out.
I put the new wiring harness in place and mounted the motor controller. I spent some time scratching my head and looking at my notebook trying to remember how all of this gets wired up. I have been doing body work since March so I am going to need to spend some time refreshing my memory on the electrical side.

Painted!

2010-07-14T20:40:00.001-06:00

Primed!

2010-07-05T15:17:00.003-06:00

Here she is ready for a final walk through. Ali and I decided we would spend another $250 to fix 15 or so remaining imperfections. We picked a color called "Salsa Red" which is a color used on 2006-2010 New VW Beetles. I put a picture of that color at the bottom of the post. She should be ready to pick up at the end of this week.

Off to the Paint Shop

2010-06-16T08:02:00.003-06:00

With Roy's help we moved the car down to Lakewood where the body work will be detailed and the car will be primed and painted.

Sandblast Finale

2010-05-16T06:17:00.002-06:00

I decided to sandblast the louvers on the rear fenders since they are very hard to sand and the paint was peeling already. So I do believe that is the last that I will be using the sandblaster.

Movin' along

2010-05-07T17:05:00.004-06:00

I'm really feeling some progress here. I got the gas flap mounted and working with the new latch and installed the 120 volt receptacle, now it is really an EV! More filler work, got the hood latching and the trunk (boot) latching as well. I can almost smell the fresh paint job already!

Frankencar

2010-05-03T17:09:00.003-06:00

It only took about an hour to strip the body panels off of the parts car. I got the hood on along with my repaired front fenders and got them all adjusted pretty close. I decided my fronts were better than the others. I am going to use one of my doors and one of the new ones. As for the rears I am going to get rid of mine and use both of the ones from the new donor car. The trunk lid was a tossup but I think I'll keep mine. Don't miss the cool graphics which were on the doors and read fenders.

My New Baby

2010-05-01T14:01:00.003-06:00

I just came across this car on Craigslist. I wish I had seen this 2 months ago. I think I am going to use the fenders, doors, hood and trunk lid off of this car instead of the ones I just spent 2 months repairing. This move is going to save me a lot of time and headache. And now I'll have some extra body parts! I bough this car for $175.00.

Body Filler

2010-04-23T11:14:00.002-06:00

I have begun using body filler on a few areas. This is very exciting for me. Hand sanding is a pretty good workout!

Getting ready for body filler

2010-04-19T14:25:00.002-06:00

I know it looks like a car puzzle right now but as soon as I remount the doors and fenders I will be working on the body filler, and after that it will be time to paint it. I can't wait!

Some inspiration

2010-04-05T18:54:00.003-06:00

Front Fenders Continued

2010-03-29T09:57:00.004-06:00

I've moved on from patching the right front to the left front.

More fender repair

2010-03-19T10:57:00.001-06:00

Fender Surgery

2010-03-17T21:20:00.002-06:00

Body Sanding

2010-02-27T14:42:00.003-07:00

I'm getting started with the body sanding now. At the end of this process will be a sweet paint job but it sure seems a long way off. This first pic shows the most extensive rust rot on the body. This is the rear edge of the right front fender. The left side is not quite as bad. Then there are some smaller holes but they are in places that are not so prominent. I need to cut out this rust and shape some new metal and weld it into place. Then it will need to be ground down and hopefully I won't need 5 pounds of filler on top of it!

Rear Charger Board

2010-02-14T10:26:00.004-07:00

Here is another electrical assembly ready to go into the car. This board mounts next to the motor. It has the charger and a main anderson disconnect as well as a junction box containing a contactor and fuses. Also on this board are two of the four main 400 Amp fuses. The contactor in the junction box keeps the charger disconnected from the pack while in normal use and connects the charger to the pack once 120VAC is present.

Back together

2010-02-14T09:33:00.003-07:00

I put the fenders back on today and I'm glad to see our cute little car looking less like Frankenstein.
The motor has been remounted and all of the underbody/ boot/ bonnet areas are painted. Now comes the time to sand off all of the paint on the exterior, woo hoo!

Traction Pack Conduit

2010-02-14T09:24:00.002-07:00

This is the installation of a 1 1/2" Liquidtight Flexible Conduit (Sealtite) to connect the front and rear portions of the traction pack through the passenger compartment. I used some Aluminum 2 1/2" chase nipples as bushings through a bulkhead and through the pan in the rear. Underneath the car the conduit runs around the right rear suspension pivot. I might add a mount down there so I can secure it to a fixed point and keep it from vibrating / rubbing. Otherwise I am pretty happy with how this came out. I feel this method offers excellent protection in the passenger compartment from the 120VDC cables. There will be two additional 1/2 Sealtite runs running along side of this larger run. One will carry 120 VAC tot he charger and the other will carry 120 VDC from the rear disconnect to the heater and DC/DC converter which are located up front.

Underbody Paint

2010-02-08T19:04:00.003-07:00

Finally. I have been working towards this day for a very long time. I got the front (bonnet) done and the rear mostly painted. I need to go pick up some more paint. I have some time off of work this week so I'll be getting this finished on Wednesday I hope.

Front Junction Box

2010-02-08T18:45:00.004-07:00

I've been working on this front junction box over the last week. It is about ready to put into the car. This box contains a heater contactor, fuses for the heater and for the DC/DC. Also it houses the main safety contactor which will break the main pack in case of a crash (inertia switch), or if the emergency "panic button" is pressed. Also in this box is a contactor which will keep the key switch disabled when 120VAC is present (charging). Lastly there is a current transformer which will allow measurement of overall current flow in the traction pack.

Getting ready for more sandblasting

2010-01-29T08:15:00.001-07:00

I'm working on getting the rear areas ready for sandblasting. I'm also working on the safety/heat control junction box.

Another Productive Saturday

2010-01-16T21:05:00.005-07:00

I've been working on this rear component board which I test fit into the car today. Everything fits so I'll continue putting this together in the basement at home. This "board" is a piece of PVC sheet with the charger, anderson connector and a j-box for the charger interlock contactor as well as the 120VDC feed to the front end of the car. That feed will power the heater core as well as the DC/DC converter.
I am also trying to wrap up the welding/metalwork on the front end by fixing the rotted out hood latch mounting area.
With Roy's help today we hooked up the installed warp-9 to a regular 12 volt battery as a bench test. It was amazing to see the wheels spin and the motor hum. After that I pulled the motor so I can sanblast the engine bay and paint it along with the front battery bay.

Sunday Car Day

2010-01-10T18:41:00.006-07:00

I spent a whole day on the car on Sunday. Here are some pics.

Sandblasting and Welding

2010-01-09T17:15:00.002-07:00

We have a sandblaster at Roy's Shop, it works great. I got most of the front end cleaned up and now I have to weld in one more patch. I also finished the front battery rack and welded that into the car.
Still trying to figure out the rear electrical enclosure location. I think I am goint to get a new box for the rear. The hinged lid doesn't want to fit.

Still not getting too much car time

Back to it!

2009-11-29T20:17:00.002-07:00

It's been almost 2 months since I have worked on the car. I put in 6 hours this weekend and got going again. I'm working on a mount for an electrical junction box. I totally screwed this up the first time I welded it in place. The junction box wouldn't even open. I ended up cutting this apart and redoing it but I forgot the camera today.

Ben's Halloween Costume - Construction

2009-10-26T08:54:00.005-06:00

Ben really wanted to be a race car for Halloween this year. We tried to convince him to be something else, but he wouldn't budge. So we settled on a funny car dragster since we'd been to the drag races twice this summer and those were some of his favorite kinds of race cars.
With a bunch of old cardboard boxes and a hot glue gun we created this car. Note the parachute and breakaway (velcro) wheelie bar. Also we made a set of decals based on Ben's favorite stuff (Lego, NASA, Annies Mac n Cheese, etc.). The exhaust pipes are PVC pluming pipe and fittings, pretty much everything else is cardboard and paper and lots of spray paint. Enjoy these pics!

Ben's Halloween Costume - part 2

2009-10-24T23:39:00.009-06:00

More Sheet Metal Repair

2009-09-12T15:20:00.002-06:00

This is some repair on some easier areas. There are two patches over the old speaker holes. Also there is a panel behind the rear seat. The three patches together provide separation between the rear battery pack and the passenger compartment, something I feel is very important for safety.
There is another patch under the rear seat which covers a hole created by the old starting battery. I am feeling a little more at ease with the sheet metal welding now. I will have a few patches in the body to weld which are going to show.

Sheet Metal Repair

2009-09-12T15:14:00.004-06:00

I have begun repairing some areas of rotten sheet metal. I am using 18ga. metal which has been a little tricky to bend to fit some of these holes. Lucky for me these areas won't show when the car is finished.

More Welding - Battery Racks

2009-08-25T20:17:00.003-06:00

I am continuing on with welding and installing the front and rear battery racks. Progress has been slow this month but at least I can call it progress.

Body work has begun

2009-08-05T09:53:00.003-06:00

I am so happy to see this phase underway. I have a friend - Rick - who studied bodywork at the local tech college. I figure he has 30+ hours to get the whole car looking like the passenger door. There is quite a bit of body filler on this car. So after it is all sanded out we will be doing more filler work. And after that some primer.
The good news is that there are only a few sheet metal patches to replace rusty metal - Probably on the front fenders.
There was some rusted out metal in the front wheel wells. There are some pics showing where I cut and ground out the rust. These should be easy to patch since they are on the underbody and won't show from the exterior of the car.

Weld, Weld, Grind, Sweat

2009-07-27T16:58:00.005-06:00

Whew! This metal working sure works up a sweat.
I have finished the motor mount and now I am installing some racks to mount the motor controller and a component board. The component board will have the charger, fuses, an Anderson disconnect, and a junction box for the heater relay and fuses and other misc. connections.
I moved on to the rear battery rack. I decided to go with 5 of the 10 batteries in the back (front) of the trunk. This will leave some space for groceries and stuff in the trunk. I had originally wanted to get the batteries down below the engine hatch but the controller is such a beast and there just wasn't room.
So I compromise, the batteries are a little high up, but they sit exactly over the rear suspension/ axles/ tires. And there is already a nice flat floor there.
The clearance to wire up the batteries is very tight,so in a few months I will be ranting and raving about what a bitch it is. I am going to get some big rubber gloves for insulation when I install the batteries.

I'm welding!

2009-07-22T18:58:00.002-06:00

Woo Hoo!

Motor is in...

2009-07-19T17:26:00.002-06:00

At least temporarily. I need to make a motor support. I decided to start with the old motor mount. I removed the old motor support from the ICE and then made a plywood template and layed-out the location of the new motor. I bolted the template to the old motor support and cut out the circular shape with my cordless jigsaw. A little grinding cleaned up the high spots and it fit perfect.
Next I will get the welder set up and beef-up this bracket and provide mounting points to connect into the Warp9 Motor.

Interior Demo

2009-06-17T18:00:00.003-06:00

I'm up to 23 hours so far on this project, getting in a lot of time this week. Ben got to drive the car today and see how the wheels steer!

Degreasing Day

2009-06-16T07:25:00.001-06:00

37 years of road grit and grime has mostly been removed!

Engine Removal

2009-06-14T15:25:00.004-06:00

The engine is out and the fuel tank too. What a mess. Old cars are very dirty. Next step will be to clean up and take apart the interior.

Maybe Red, Maybe Grey

2009-05-30T14:27:00.003-06:00

Here are some fastbacks in different colors we like. We're trying to decide what to do.

Really going to do it

2009-05-30T14:07:00.007-06:00

It is finally time to purchase all of the conversion components for our car. Most of the parts are coming from FL from a company called Rebirth Auto. Here are some pictures of some of the gear.
Were going to build a 120 Volt DC car with AGM Lead-Acid Batteries. We expect to be able to go 40 miles and top out at 65mph.
Major components include:
Warp9 Motor
New Evnetics controller
Kelly Charger and DC/DC
Rebirth Adapter
PakTrakr Battery Monitoring
10 DEKA 8A31DT AGM Batteries

We bought one!

2009-04-03T14:32:00.003-06:00

Well we did it, we bought this car and drove it home from Denver last night. I guess we really have a project on our hands now.

Just Dreaming

2009-04-02T13:42:00.000-06:00

Here is the car Ali and I want to convert.